In the art of roofing with tiles constructed of natural materials, it has been known for many years to roof tiles with natural slates. Such slates, derived from quarries, are cut to size, drilled or punched with nail holes, and applied to roofs in a conventional manner. However, such natural slates, while providing for roofs for many years, often 50-100 years, generally require a basic supporting roof structure capable of withstanding great amounts of weight, such as on the order of 2,000 lbs. per square, with a square being a 10 feet by 10 feet area of a roof.
Synthetic products have been developed which simulate natural-appearing roofs, such as slate roofs, but such are either very heavy, or if weight is a consideration, rather thin, being constructed thinner than natural slate or other natural roofing tiles, in order to reduce the weight required.
Other synthetic roofing products have been developed, such as from molded concrete with appropriate lightweight fillers, sometimes with partial recesses for weight reduction purposes.
Such prior art synthetic products either have not simulated the desired thickness of natural materials, or have not lent themselves to being cut, thereby making it necessary to have accessories in the form of custom hip and ridge tiles, custom rake edge tiles, and various custom angled pieces, in order to complete a roof. In such instances, while a vast majority of tiles necessary to comprise a roof may be the basic roof tile, the very large number of accessory pieces that must be stocked in order to accommodate the various roofing situations that arise are often prohibitively expensive and cumbersome, adding to the cost of a synthetic, natural-appearing tile roof.